1983 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament

In the final match, played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, NC State led at halftime with a score of 33–25. Houston was hampered by foul trouble that plagued star Clyde Drexler, who picked up four first half fouls. In the second halfof the Cougars came out with another wind and based control of the game, eventually taking a seven-point lead.
But, things weren’t all good for Houston. Considering that the game was played in Albuquerque, players needed to deal with the city’s mile-high altitude. The Cougars’ star centre, Akeem Olajuwon, had difficulties adjusting to the surroundings and tired quickly, having to test out of this game multiple times so he could put on an oxygen mask and then recuperate. Together with Olajuwon on the bench, Houston head coach Guy Lewis determined that in order to safeguard the lead and the health of his huge man at precisely the same period, the Cougars had to start slowing the game down.
Yet again, this allowed the Wolfpack to go back to their standby strategy of extending the game. Houston’s free throw shooting was quite suspicious entering the match, which worked greatly in NC State’s favor as they could rally back and even the score at 52 in the last two minutes. On what is the final Houston ownership, Valvano known for his players to back off and let freshman guard Alvin Franklin bring the ball up the court. The Wolfpack defenders would let the Cougars use their lag strategy of passing around. Once the ball got back to Franklin he was fouled immediately. With 1:05 left, the freshman was fouled and sent into the line for a one-and-one. The idea to foul Franklin sprung from the enormity of the second; NC State thought that the relatively inexperienced Franklin couldn’t withstand the strain of going to the line together with the tournament at stake and knowing that fifty million viewers were tuned in to watch the game. The theory was right as Franklin failed to convert the Wolfpack caught the rebound. Valvano called timeout with 44 seconds left and drew up a play for mature guard Dereck Whittenburg during the timeout, which required the team to pass him the ball ten minutes left on the clock so he could take the final shot.
Houston needed a defensive stop so they could get another opportunity to close out the game. Lewis made a decision to move from the man-to-man defense his team had been running the entire match to a half court zone trap defense. The Wolfpack, who weren’t expecting the defensive adjustment, were made to deviate and began passing the ball around simply to keep the Cougars from stealing it. Houston nearly got the turnover it was searching for when Whittenburg made an errant pass to Gannon that Drexler nearly came away with prior to the sophomore regained control of the ball. The ball finally wound up in the palms of protector Sidney Lowe, who lent it to forwards and fellow senior Thurl Bailey in the corner.
Trying to keep the ball going, as he had been double teamed as soon as he obtained the pass, Bailey appeared back toward Whittenburg, that had been approximately thirty feet from the hoop near midcourt. Bailey threw what Whittenburg would call a”poor basic” overhanded pass that Houston’s Benny Anders, guarding Whittenburg on the drama, was in position to steal. Now, Whittenburg hearkened back to his high school days together with Morgan Wootten at DeMatha Catholic High School, where he was taught to always grab the basketball with both hands. If Whittenburg hadn’t attempted to do this in this case, Anders may have gotten the slip and a game-winning breakaway layup. In college basketball at the moment, the match clock continued to run after a made field goal, and the Wolfpack probably wouldn’t have had time to inbound the ball. As it was, Anders knocked the ball out of Whittenburg’s hands, but Whittenburg immediately regained control.
The clock, meanwhile, had ticked down to five seconds and Whittenburg was still standing a significant distance from the objective. Once he regained control, Whittenburg turned and launched a desperation shot, afterwards claimed by Whittenburg for a pass, to try and win the match for NC State. The shot’s trajectory took it on the front of the basket at which Olajuwon was covering Wolfpack center Lorenzo Charles. As he watched the shooter, Olajuwon said he knew the shooter was likely to come up short but he also did not want to go for the ball too early due to the potential for goaltending. Charles took advantage of this indecision by Olajuwon and proceeded up for the air ball, and, in one motion, he scored the go-ahead points using a two-handed dip. The final second ticked off the clock prior to Houston could inbound the ball, and with that, the game ended, and the Wolfpack were the winners.

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